Congestion pricing's fine print

Foreign diplomats who reside here will likely be exempt from paying for congestion pricing, as the fee is considered to be a "tax":

TRAFFIC-FEE BID PUTS CITY IN JAM WITH FEDS

Bloomie feels that if the plan is not implemented during his lame duck days, it will never be put in place:

TRAFFIC FEE NOW OR NEVER: MIKE

The only politician to thus far adamantly oppose the mayor's congestion pricing plan is U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner. So of course, Bloomie's miffed with him:

Mike: Weiner too quick to rip $8 fee

The mayor used this as more proof that the plan is necessary:

Gasp! N.Y. air 'everyday threat'

Report: NYC Air Quality Has Gotten Worse

(Allowing developers to pave over every available green space in the city was not seen as a problem, however.)

Photo from Queens Times

Construction Safety Week

The DOB has a number of events planned for this week, including:

May 1: Homeowner's Night
May 2: Safety First: Demolitions in Urban Environments
May 3: Structural Condition Assessments: The Challenges and the Solutions
May 4: Safety Front & Center: The New NYC Construction Codes

Graphic from NYC.gov.

The final straw

So people apparently are selling their identities to mortgage brokers and moving to foreign countries:

Last week, the FBI arrested 10 people with ties to a Bangladeshi community in Queens who allegedly conspired to create a pyramid scheme in which they purchased the identities of immigrants who were leaving New York to move back to Bangladesh, according to FBI officials. The price was usually about $5,000, the officials said.

FBI Arrests 10 in Queens In Mortgage Fraud Scheme

The agency has charged three principals in a brokerage group, New Generation Funding, with using the purchased identities as "straw buyers" to obtain financing for the purchase of homes. By selling the properties among the "straw buyers," and raising their value through fraudulently inflated appraisals, the defendants were allegedly able to pocket about $100,000 on each property.

Underground Railroad homes hearing today

This should be a good one:

Council hearing on Underground Railroad homes

Lawmakers To Consider Fate of Seven Brooklyn Houses

The EDC's report can be found at the bottom of this page:

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN UNDERGROUND RAILROAD REPORT

Here's a video report:

AKRF vs. History: The Duffield St. Houses

Photo from The Real Deal

Woodside squeeze-in

Down this little alley in Woodside is a giant PoS. What's cute is that the permits and complaints for this one property are under different street names. (Burroughs Place was the former name of 66th Street, but for some reason remains in DOB's system.)

Here are 41-36 Burroughs Place and 41-34 66th Street along with the subdivided 41-38 66th Street.

There was a 2-family house here. Now it looks like there will be at least 8 units.

And God knows what is going on next door...

Incidentally, the Burroughs family was prominent in the area in the 18th and 19th centuries. We're sure they'd lobby to have their name completely removed from this street if they were alive to see the present day landscape, especially the yet-to-be-used rusty balconies that hangeth off of this piece of Queens Crap.